The best industrial ultrasonic cleaner is the one that cleans your parts every shift at a running cost you can live with. Tank litres will not tell you that. These are the checks we run on every job, and the questions to put to any supplier.
Quoted to site, ex GST.
Measure the biggest part you will ever clean, not the average one. The tank opening must clear it with room to lower it in and lift it out. The working depth must cover it completely, with the basket and any fixture under it. Then check the basket load limit. Buying on tank litres alone is the most common mistake we see.
Low frequency, around 25 kHz, gives the heavy scrubbing action that shifts carbon, grease and scale from robust metal parts. Higher frequencies, around 40 to 45 kHz, give a finer action for detailed parts and softer surfaces. A dual-frequency tank covers both. Read more on choosing the frequency.
Watts per litre tells you how hard the tank works the bath. Suppliers quote power in different ways, nominal or peak, so ask which figure you are being given and compare like with like. Ask how many generators drive the tank and whether power can be adjusted.
Stainless grade and wall thickness decide how long the tank survives cavitation and chemistry. SS316 resists aggressive chemistry better than SS304. Ask how the transducers are fixed to the tank, and what the warranty covers on them.
Most aqueous cleaning chemistry is made to work hot. Check the heater size against the tank volume and ask how long the tank takes to reach temperature from cold. A small heater on a big tank costs you the first hour of every shift.
Oil floats. Without a weir or overflow to skim it, parts are lifted out through an oil film and pick it back up. Filtration keeps solids out of the bath. Both decide how long a charge of chemistry lasts before it has to be dumped.
A single tank washes. If parts must come out rinsed and dry, you need a rinse and a dryer: separate tanks in a line, or one sealed chamber that washes, rinses and dries behind one door.
Baskets, lids and lifting decide whether the machine gets used properly. Heavy baskets need a lifting platform or a crane. A lid holds heat and keeps noise down. Stored recipes stop cycles being cut short.
The chemical has to suit the soil and the metal. Ask for the safety data sheet and the technical data sheet, and follow the dose and temperature on the data sheet.
Ask who commissions the machine, who trains the operators, where the spare parts are held, how faults are diagnosed, and what the warranty covers. A cheap import with no local support costs more the first time a generator fails.
Ask for a documented result on parts like yours. Where the part is unproven, a proper trial on your own parts, judged against criteria agreed before it runs, settles it before you commit.
Take this to any supplier.
For heavy soils on robust metal parts, around 25 kHz. For detailed parts and softer surfaces, around 40 to 45 kHz. A dual-frequency tank covers both.
No. A tank much bigger than the part wastes heat, chemistry and power, and spreads the ultrasonic power over more liquid. Size the tank from the biggest part, with room to handle it.
Our industrial tanks start from $3,970 ex GST. Floor machines and larger systems are quoted to site as a working system: machine, chemistry, baskets and commissioning in one number, ex GST.
A spray parts washer cleans the surfaces it can hit. Ultrasonics reach blind holes, threads and internal passages. Where parts must also come out rinsed and dry, a sealed ultrasonic parts washer such as UltraWash does both in one chamber.